Decision

City of Westminster Council (00BK) - Regulatory Judgement: 26 February 2025

Published 26 February 2025

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	February 2025

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for City of Westminster Council, also known as Westminster City Council (Westminster CC), following an inspection completed in February 2025.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grading of C1. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection, we have concluded that overall, Westminster CC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and is making effective use of its systems to identify and address potential issues and areas for improvement. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for Westminster CC.

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Westminster CC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. We considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection we observed a Westminster CC committee meeting and three tenant meetings (a resident panel and two resident forums). We spoke to involved tenants and other tenants, held meetings with Westminster CC and their senior leadership team including councillors, and reviewed a wide range of documents.

Our regulatory judgement is based on all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection, as well as analysis of data received from Westminster CC through its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings 

Consumer – C1 – February 2025 

Westminster CC meets the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard by demonstrating compliance with statutory health and safety requirements. During the inspection, Westminster CC provided evidence-based assurance that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas and that performance is monitored, including by councillors and tenants. Outcomes across key areas of health and safety compliance were good. Westminster CC provided effective examples of how it learns lessons when issues arise and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence, including tackling root causes. 

Westminster CC has an accurate record of the condition of its homes including through physical surveys which encompass the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and has a process in place to keep this information up to date. Westminster CC is working towards having a full up to date stock condition survey for all its homes by July 2025 and was able to demonstrate that it uses a variety of supplementary data sources to enable a comprehensive understanding of the condition of its homes. Westminster CC also demonstrated how its understanding of the quality and safety of its tenants’ homes informs decisions on future investment. Westminster CC reports that 95% of its homes meet the Decent Homes Standard and its current investment plan includes provision to achieve 100% decency and maintain ongoing compliance. 

Westminster CC’s repairs and maintenance service meets regulatory requirements. It has demonstrated that it prioritises work appropriately and takes into account tenant vulnerabilities. For example, it has introduced a Customer Advocacy Team, to assist tenants with additional support needs in raising repairs issues and  communicating the repairs process through to satisfactory completion. Westminster CC has implemented a repairs improvement plan that has facilitated enhanced performance monitoring. It continues to review its repairs and maintenance service, and takes action where needed to improve outcomes for tenants. 

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Westminster CC makes effective use of partnership opportunities. Westminster CC demonstrated that it works proactively with relevant organisations to deter and tackle Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) in its neighbourhoods, including targeting hotspots using a range of responses such as enhanced patrols. Westminster CC sets out its approach to managing ASB and hate incidents in its ASB policy and has specific targets on ASB performance. As part of its case management processes, Westminster CC uses scheduled case reviews for more complex cases and undertakes housing support reviews to help support tenants with additional support needs.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Westminster CC offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock. Westminster CC has a lettings policy that sets out its approach to ensuring all properties are let in a fair and transparent way and takes into account of the needs of tenants and prospective tenants.

We gained assurance that Westminster CC is committed to treating tenants with fairness and respect, although it acknowledges that it will need to continue to drive improvements so that the strong corporate emphasis on listening to tenants is reflected at all levels of the council. Westminster CC gathers tenants’ views in a range of formal and informal ways, and tenants are provided with meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services. We saw evidence that tenant feedback and scrutiny has positively impacted service delivery in a number of areas, including in relation to repairs and allocations.

Overall, we found Westminster CC ensures complaints are addressed fairly, promptly and effectively. Westminster CC’s current performance on complaints handling, as evidenced by its published Tenant Satisfaction Measure data, shows improvement and this will need to be maintained. To support this, Westminster CC has developed a complaints improvement plan and reviewed the structure and delivery of the service. Westminster CC provided evidence that it learns from complaints and understands the impact on tenants when it gets things wrong, identifying when improvements need to be made and responding accordingly. 

There is evidence of Westminster CC using the information it holds about its tenants to tailor services to meet tenants’ diverse needs and deliver fair and equitable outcomes. It has made significant investment in programmes to enhance its understanding of who is living in its homes and how it identifies, logs and responds to additional support needs. Clear and accessible information is provided to tenants about Westminster CC’s services and performance, allowing tenants to access information and scrutinise how well Westminster CC is delivering those services.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Westminster CC is an inner London borough and owns around 12,000 homes.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations).

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment.

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page.

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. In Depth Assessments (IDAs) were one of our previous assessment processes, which are now replaced by our new inspections programme from 1 April 2024. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes.

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards

• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard